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How do you people use this expression, if you use it at all?
I first heard it used in this sense: "The car rental company wouldn't cover the damage to the emu, so I had to pay for it out of pocket." In this case, it means "out of my own funds" or some such - I bear the cost personally.
I now hear it used differently by people in a particular couple of offices (it seems to have spread among them, and has in fact infected a couple of colleagues here in my office). They use it to mean that they'll be away from the office and thus unavailable, as in "I'll be out of pocket for the second half of June."
A few questions:
Is this totally incorrect usage?
Would I be justified in killing them when they use it this way, or should the punishment be lighter?
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Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 387
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 387 |
The proper punishment is death after torture. And, as far as I know, the first usage is correct.
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Would I be justified in killing them when they use it this way, or should the punishment be lighter?
It sounds totally wrong to me, too. Perhaps there are alternatives to killing them, though. Maybe bring in some Merle Haggard cds? Or perhaps sing something, yourself? Oh, or just bring in that brand new baby right around feeding time (or diaper changing time).
Do you think perhaps your coworkers are simply referring to unpaid vacation time?
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Joined: Mar 2001
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
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<<Is this a totally incorrect usage?>>
It's certainly novel--and perhaps even charming (so that death by torture would indeed seem appropriate, jimthedog). "He thinks he has me in his pocket, but I'll be out of [his] pocket for a week or two [doing what I want, expensing up his expense account]." Or perhaps the reference is to billards/cubicles. And I think Mandy (welcome, Mandy) is on to something big where she mentions vacations.
Anyway, what is totally incorrect usage where it concerns colloquialism?
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Joined: Dec 2000
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
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I was really surprised while reading this thread that no one mentioned the primary use of 'out of pocket' that I know.
Examples:
'John has paid for everyone's drinks on his own; he's out of pocket so let's pay for his taxi home.'
'Since starting to pay my student loan off I'm a couple of hundred Euros(!) out of pocket every month.'
As for the absent/away meaning,.. very dodgy! I like Island Pete's reasoning as to why (i.e. in/out of someone's pocket), but I would, nevertheless, not touch it with a barge pole!
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The other clear implication of the original meaning is surely that the 'out of pocket expenses' will be reclaimed at some point in the future, isn't it?
So the adapted context could be "I'll be out of the office next week, so will have to catch up with you after that"...?
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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An employee saying he would be "out of pocket" might suggest to his boss that he was expendable.
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
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Never heard the phrase used except to mean you had to pay for something (usually when you didn't expect to have to) and there is no hope of getting the money back from another source(s).
This seems to be another case of a phrase tickling the fancy of people then becoming popular, then being reconfigured to fit whatever the speaker wants. The speaker being delighted with him/her self and the left of us left grinding our teeth.
Ah, well!
Of course I've never done that. You do believe me don't you?
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Joined: Apr 2001
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newbie
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newbie
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I'm afraid I'm going to have to buck the trend here and support this imaginative neophraseologism, which was clearly coined with a view to tying up both the familiar meaning of the term (noting that if you go on vacation, you'll surely be out of pocket, from a pecuniary perspective), and its implicit subsidiary sense, viz. the opposite of 'in each other's pockets' (so, while on vacation, you'll be physically, socially and professionally separated from your colleagues, thus affording all concerned temporary respite from each other's regular claustrophobic company). 
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Rusty is afraid he's going to have to buck the trend here
Don't be afraid, Rusty.
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